Who is Physical: Asia contestant Yushin Okami from Team Japan? Details explored

Physical: Asia is a survival competition series that premiered on October 28, 2025, exclusively on Netflix, featuring eight teams from different countries competing in challenges that test their strength and endurance.

The players are elite sportsmen, athletes, national icons from each country, and one of them is Team Japan's Yushin Okami, who is a Japanese mixed martial arts player with a history of competing in leagues like UFC, PRIDE, Pancrase, M-1 Global, World Series of Fighting, DEEP, Professional Fighters League and ONE Championship.

Regarded as one of the greatest mixed martial artists in the world, the 44-year-old veteran of more than two decades in combat sports is leading Team Japan in Netflix's Physical: Asia.

Physical: Asia contestant Yushin Okami

Yushin Okami is a renowned figure in Japanese martial arts, a long-time professional fighter, a UFC record-setter, and now the captain of Japan’s national team in one of the most exciting physical competition shows in Asia.

He was born on July 21, 1981, in Kanagawa, Japan. Okami began his martial journey through judo and wrestling before transitioning into mixed martial arts (MMA). His background in both judo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, holding a black belt in both, provided a foundation for his later MMA career.

With a towering height of 6′2″, he was nicknamed Thunder, describing his fighting skills that led him to win a total of 39 matches out of 54, recording only 15 losses.

The titan form of Eren Jaeger from Hajime Isayama's popular anime series Attack on Titan was also designed taking inspiration from Yushin Okami.

Beginning his career as a young judoka in Japan, Okami transitioned to professional MMA in 2002, quickly establishing a name for himself across various promotions, including Pancrase and PRIDE.

His early career was marked by both wins and challenges, including a controversial disqualification victory over Anderson Silva and a hard-fought run through tournaments stacked with future champions, such as Jake Shields and Carlos Condit.

By 2006, Okami had debuted in the UFC, where he became one of Asia’s most successful fighters. He later signed with World Series of Fighting in October 2013 and ONE Championship in February 2019.

His professional mixed martial arts record includes a total of 36 wins and 15 losses in the middleweight division. Out of which, he won 15 matches by knockout, 20 by decision, three by submission, and one by disqualification.

He holds the record for the most UFC wins by an Asian fighter and has fought many top names in MMA throughout a career spanning over 20 years, with an extensive fighting history that includes early appearances in Pancrase (2002-2003) and more recent fights in ONE Championship.

In 2025, Okami took on a new challenge, leading Team Japan on the Netflix reality competition Physical: Asia, which features teams from eight countries across Asia competing together in grueling physical tasks.

As captain of Team Japan, he described his role not just as a competitor, but as a leader, as he stated in the introduction:

"I was born to fight. It’s in my bones. We are a nation of warriors."

His teammates in Physical: Asia include elite athletes, namely MMA fighter Kana Watanabe, Olympian swimmer Katsumi Nakamura, national judo team captain Soichi Hashimoto, Olympian wrestler Nonoka Ozaki and former professional baseball player Yoshio Itoi.

Episode 5 of the show saw Team Japan, under Okami’s leadership, defeat Team Indonesia in a Death Match format of three intense rounds that involved multiple rematches and tiebreakers. Okami himself entered the final round and used his experience and skills to gain a victory for Japan.

Stay tuned for more updates.